CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PLANT-BASED FOOD INDUSTRY: EQVEGAN PROJECT PRESENTED AT UNIVERSITY OF BASQUE COUNTRY IN VITORIA-GASTEIZ, SPAIN, 4 OCTOBER 2023
Events
The hybrid event “Challenges & Opportunities for the Plant-based Food Industry: EQVEGAN Project”, held on 4th October 2023, was a success! The event organized jointly by ACTAE (ES) and ISEKI-Food Association (AT), which took place at the Faculty of Pharmacy (University of Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain), was also broadcasted online, and gathered stakeholders from academia (educators and students), food companies and research institutions, with a total of 82 participants from 17 nationalities.
Dr. Mirari Ayerbe, Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy (UPV/EHU) opened the session, greeting the invited speakers and participants. Carmen de Vega, from ACTAE & UPV/EHU, and Christoph Knöbl, from ISEKI-FA, then presented their institutions, focusing on their work, competences, involvement in projects and main objectives.
Based on the extensive work developed in the EQVEGAN project, two presentations were given focusing on two topics. Luis Mayor (ISEKI-Food Association) gave a general presentation of the project, including activities like the developed trainings, the food professional certification scheme, and the development of the food skills portal. As a follow-up, Carmen de Vega described the endeavours to revise the ESCO Food technologist job profile, “Food technologist: updating the occupational profile with plant-based, green & digital skills”.
Finally, Aitzpea Armendariz (IPARLAT, business manager) presented the successful history of Natur All, a Spanish plant-based food company), showcasing the commercial and technical transition from dairy to plant-based drinks and the development of the brand with a wide range of new vegan products.
At the end, there was a question-and-answer session which led to a fruitful discussion about the skills needs in the food industry to comply with a plant-based driven food market and the opportunities found by a Spanish dairy industry to enter plant-based drinks market.
The event lasted for 1H15 and the recording is available in the following link:
https://youtu.be/JN-MEcrFXpM?feature=shared
The image gallery can be consulted here:
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